This recipe is a Paleo adaptation of one of my grandmother’s famous dishes, the steak and kidney pie that she made every year for New Year’s Eve. It is actually a traditional method to make steak and kidney pie as a pot pie topped with choux pastry (I wish I could take the credit for inventing this amazing combination). When I developed a Paleofied choux pastry for my Paleo Chocolate Éclairs, this was the next recipe I wanted to try. It is a pastry that manages to be light and airy yet rich and decadent at the same time. It feels a little like eating Yorkshire pudding as a pie crust. It’s delightful! Oh, and if you think you don’t like kidney, this is the recipe to try. It’s the kind of dish where you might find yourself saying “I don’t like kidney, er, except in The Paleo Mom’s steak and kidney pie–cuz that’s da bomb”. Or whatever the kids say these days. Lamb kidney is definitely the most mild and tender (I consider it gateway kidney), but you could easily substitute beef or pork kidney in this recipe. Serves 6-8.
Ingredients (Steak and Kidney Filling):
- 3 lbs steak
- 1 1/2 pounds lamb kidney
- 6 oz portobello mushrooms
- 1 large sweet onion
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 Tbsp fish sauce
- 1/2 tsp salt, to taste
- 1/2 tsp pepper, to taste
- 3 medium carrots
- 2 cups beef stock
- 2 Tbsp arrowroot powder
- 3-4 Tbsp bacon grease (or use tallow, lard or coconut oil)
- Slice steak and kidney into quarter inch thick slices. Slice carrot into half inch thick rounds, and portobello mushrooms into half inch thick cubes. Cut onion in half and then slice into quarter inch thinck half moons.
- Heat 3 tablespoons of bacon grease in a large pot over medium-high heat. Brown meat and kidney separately in batches. Set aside.
- Add 1-2 tablespoons bacon grease to pan if needed. Brown onion slices for 7-8 minutes. Add carrot and mushrooms for 3-4 more minutes.
- Return meat to the pot. Whisk arrowroot powder into beef stock and add to pot. Also add fish sauce and bay leaf. Simmer uncovered for one and a half hours. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.
- Pour into a large casserole or lasagna dish. Let cool to room temperature (if it’s a little warmer than room temperature when the choux pastry is ready, that’s okay).
- While cooling, prepare choux pastry.
Ingredients (Choux Pastry):
- ½ cup palm shortening (you could substitute unsalted butter)
- 1 cup full fat coconut milk
- 1/3 cup coconut flour, sifted (measure after sifting)
- 1/3 cup tapioca starch
- 1/3 cup arrowroot powder
- 4 eggs + 1 egg yolk
- Pinch of salt
- This is going to be intense, so I recommend measuring out all of your ingredients before you start. Combine your flours and salt. Crack your eggs and place them in separate bowls (okay you can combine your extra yolk and one egg in a bowl). Preheat oven to 425F.
- Heat coconut milk and palm shortening over medium heat until it just starts to simmer. Remove from heat and pour in all of the flour all at once. Stir like mad until it’s thick and fully combined.
- Add the eggs ONE AT A TIME and stir like crazy with each addition (you are doing this off the heat). Each time you add an egg, the dough will seem to separate and then as you stir, it will come together. Wait until it comes together before adding the next egg.
- At the end, you have a fairly warm, quite thick and sticky cream-colored dough.
- Immediately pour the dough over the cooled steak and kidney filling. Spread with a spoon or spatula to evenly cover the entire surface.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, until lightly browned on top (you might want to put a baking sheet under the casserole dish just in case it bubbles over a little). Enjoy!
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This looks amazing. I love organ meats, my husband not so much. But I bet I could get him to eat this. 🙂
Gosh, my way of eating Steak and Kidney Pie is to eat the filling without the pie crust. This way I can have the crust as well!! Fantastic idea, one that I am definitely going to try. Thanks for all your fantastic suggestions. Will make the eclairs as well.
Kidney! My half hog came with kidney and I have no idea what to do with it. Do you think think that I could substitute it for the lamb kidney? I’ve read to slice it in half and cut the white part out of the middle. Would you recommend that? Also, any particular cut of steak that you recommend?
Thank you so much for any help you can provide. I’ve been so intimidated by this kidney and your awesome recipes have helped me use beef heart and pork neck, so I’m excited to try this!
Totally! Pig kidney has a firmer texture than lamb, but still a fairly mild flavor (it’s my second favorite kidney), so it would work very well. Yes, you’ll need to cut that part out of the middle because with pork kidneys it can be quite tough (just the stringy bits, not the fatty bits).
Thanks! This looks really good. Could you make a substitution for the tapioca Starch?
This looks great! Any ideas for a substitute for the eggs in the Choux Pastry? I am following AIP.
Thanks!
I would just make it without the choux pastry. It’s still really yummy (for a little starchiness, you could try layering the top with sliced taro or green plantain)
Hello my love,
I was just wondering, do you think it would work if I just doubled the tapioca and didn’t use arrowroot? Reason being I can only find tiny little sachets of arrowroot in the shops and buying enough for this recipe would cost an arm and a leg… If not, any other suggestion? Seems a lot of things are a lot dearer here in the UK than it is in the US! 🙁
Many thanks and much love,
Angel
You can sub the arrowroot with tapioca, that’s fine. – Christina, Sarah’s assistant
Son would love this, I think; but, he has Crohn’s and can’t eat onions or mushrooms. Recommendations? We moved to the country so I can get top quality meats for it. He likes eating organ meats even though he doesn’t know he’s eating them. He saw them in the store once and was aghast but I informed him that he likes them. Baffling world.
Anyway will the deduction of onions and mushrooms change it too drastically?
It would be a very different recipe without the mushrooms or onion, but I think you could make substitutions and wind up with something that’s still good–I would try taro root or celeriac, personally. If it’s a FODMAP issue, green onions may work instead. – Christina, Sarah’s assistant
Dont you have to boil kidneys before you cook with them in order to get all the urea out?
No, I have not seen that recommended anywhere. – Christina, Sarah’s assistant
I do think it would be helpful to talk about how to prepare the kidney as many of us Paleo folks are new to organ meats. Thankfully I had seen it on another recipe I looked it but I could easily have just cut the whole thing up.
That said – this was delicious! the crust was one of the best Paleo crusts I’ve ever tasted. A winner for sure!
Mmm, I made this last night, and it was delicious! I made a few substitutions and changes (didn’t have tapioca starch or time to simmer for an hour and a half) but it turned out pretty well. Definitely going to be making this one again. I’ve decided I like kidney a lot more than liver!
This looks wonderful. I never thought I would eat Steak and Kidney Pie again! Now thanks to you I will! My favourite dish ever!
wow, that look delicious, thanks for posting up this recipe, looks quite simple to make to. Thanks
Simon